In the early 1990s, 20-something Antavius Weems would jog through his new neighborhood somewhat oblivious to his surroundings. He didn’t know he was huffing past the doorstep of Christine King Farris, sister of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or that on the other side of the neighborhood, Juanita Abernathy was the recent widow of Ralph David Abernathy.
Just a decade later, not only would Weems know who lived in every house in Collier Heights, he and his neighbors would lobby for the community to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the only neighborhoods in the nation built by and for African-Americans. In June 2009, the community met its goal, simultaneously becoming the second community in the state recognized for its preponderance of ranch-style homes.
“More than 90 percent of [Collier Heights] homes are ranch,” said Weems, 41, a ranch dweller. “The houses all tell a story.”
Weems’ 1967 home, like many others in the neighborhood, is a traditional one-story ranch with a basement designed for entertaining, as African-Americans of the period, long denied access to downtown venues, often opted for in-home entertainment.
“I thought it was phenomenal how much planning and purpose went into building these homes,” Weems said.
Protecting that kind of planning is the job of Richard Cloues, historic resource section chief of the Department of Natural Resources and deputy state historic preservation officer. Around 2005, ranch homes began cropping up in some of the department programs, which include archaeology protection and environmental reviews.
“We didn’t go looking for ranch houses. They found us,” Cloues said. “I decided we really ought to investigate them a little bit and see if it is something we should be paying attention to.”
Cloues did the usual academic research, but couldn’t find a single mention of ranch homes in the Southeast, so he began field operations and local research. He discovered that DeKalb County was the state’s epicenter for ranch-house development in the 1950s.
With a coalition of preservation experts and transportation and utility companies — entities that typically go head-to-head over issues of preservation — Cloues spent years assembling information needed to understand the history of ranch houses in the state. New South Associates, which provides cultural resource management, helped turn the information into guidelines for evaluating ranch houses.
“That catapulted us to national headlines, because no other state has done this on a state level,” Cloues said.
Though some communities — including Collier Heights and Savannah’s Fairway Oaks — were already listed when the guidelines were completed in 2010, it marked the official moment that ranch homes in the state became eligible for the national register. There are about 2,000 communities and individual ranch homes listed statewide, Cloues said.
But what does it really mean for the estimated 275,000 to 300,000 ranch-home owners in the state? There are tax incentives, Cloues said, but mostly there is the pride that comes with having your own little slice of history.
“It helps them understand what it is about that house that makes it special,” Cloues said.
Being listed does not mean a private homeowner cannot alter his or her house or property, said Patrick Sullivan, an architectural historian for New South Associates. But any state or federally funded projects have to take into consideration how the project may impact a nationally registered property.
Not every ranch home is eligible for listing, and the first step in identification is understanding what makes a house a ranch house.
Ranch houses in Georgia reached a period of significance between 1945 and 1969. Interior and exterior characteristics are considered when evaluating a ranch house, according to state guidelines, with five features considered character defining: red brick exterior, unobscured front entry, a variety of window types including the common three-part windows with a center picture window and flanking operable windows, screened porches and zoned living spaces inside.
Eligibility for listing is generally easier when applying as a community or group of homes, but individual homeowners may also apply. The process includes a description of the home or community being nominated in the form of images and floor plans, the historical context of the property nominated such as when it was built and who lived there and a property assessment from the homeowner or neighborhood association.
If the home or community looks promising, Cloues and his team help the homeowner or association build the strongest argument for the property.
In the case of Collier Heights, it helped that Weems was an attorney, working with a team of neighbors that included government agents and judges, but mostly he said, they were all passionate about their homes and truly believed that Collier Heights had a history worth preserving.
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